Adult-FanFiction.org : Naruto

It Was You, Hinata	By : Rockrgrl4 Category: Naruto > Het - Male/Female Views: 1843 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor any of its characters. I will not make any money by publishing this.

Chapter List
- 13
- 14
- 15
Hello!
I’ve noticed some alerts dropping off for a while…is there a problem, guys? ^^ I apologize for not updating sooner…college has literally been *insert appropriate curse word here*, and even after taking nearly my entire break to rest and recuperate, I still feel as if I haven’t slept a day! How strange is that?!
I hope that you are all enjoying this fic, and as a reward for your patience I’m giving to you this chapter, filled with all sorts of goodies and plot twists! :P If I do well on time, I may even update with *gasp* TWO chapters tonight! OMG!
I hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday! ^^
-K.

            Deep in the underground prison of Suna, Baki walked the tunnels of the 4^th sublevel. As a result of the tighter security, the Kazekage trusted only his best and brightest to guard the prisioners of Suna who posed the greatest threat and who better than his own sensei? Baki to this day remained loyal to his three students, and although he was honored Gaara had chosen him to perform this essential task, the dim light of the sublevel was getting to him. It was true that while he was still an exceptional shinobi, his age was starting to catch up to him and it was causing an even greater strain on his eyes. The vast difference between the light of day shining upon the desert dunes above and the dark, earthy, muddy tunnels of the fourth sublevel of the underground structure were really taking their toll. Baki sighed to himself. Despite his health problems, it was nearly time for his duty to end, and with the sand jounin being the experienced, clever shinobi that he was he wanted to re-check one last prisoner before he was dismissed for the night.
            He rounded the corner of the tunnels passageway, his hand hovering over his kunai pouch, ready in case of a problem. Baki’s form stiffened, ready for action, and then he made his way around the final corner to the prisoner’s cell. Despite all of his flaws/problems, Baki was still a damn good shinobi after his years of experience, and he wasn’t about to make a ridiculous blunder such as being unprepared.
            When the jounin’s gaze met the cell for the first time in several years his jaw dropped in shock. There, in the center of the cell, chained to the wall in the former prisoner’s constraints, was Emiko-san, an esteemed council member and elder of the village of Suna.
            “Emiko-san?” Baki called to the elderly woman’s limp form, still poised for attack if the need be, but not completely believing his own eyes, “How did you get in there?”
            No reply came from the pitiful, limp body of the old woman. Her clothing was dirtied by the grime of the cell, or rather what was left of her clothing. Dried blood had pooled on the floor from her own open wounds, and as Baki surveyed her condition from a distance the color and amount of blood indicated that she had been attacked several hours ago. It would be a miracle if the woman were still alive, taking into consideration the amount of blood that she had lost. The evidence-pools of Emiko-san’s own blood-lay at the feet of her suspended figure.
            Baki reached for his radio and started shouting instructions into it, not taking his eyes off of the woman who had treated others and himself so kindly throughout her life. He had a hard time not getting emotional after seeing a good friend and kindred spirit chained to the wall in such a filthy, vile way. Never in his life had he imagined his friend and colleague would die the way she had, and he hated whoever had done such a thing to her.
            Most of all, he hated himself for allowing it to happen.

            “Kazekage-sama!” Another shinobi called from outside his office, “Requesting permission to enter…please, it’s urgent!”
            Gaara stood from his chair, instantly becoming alert despite the late hour, “Enter!”
            An ANBU was within his office in seconds, kneeling before him and revealing, “The rouge prisoner has escaped, Kazekage-sama.”
            Silence filled the room and Gaara’s expression remained stony. He allowed no anger to overcome him, but continued calmly, “How is this possible?”
            The ANBU bowed his head even lower so that it was almost parallel with the ground, and replied evenly, “We do not know, Kazekage-sama. Baki-sama was patrolling the area this afternoon, and before he was to be relieved, he doubled back to check on the prisoner once more before his departure. When he arrived, he found not the prisoner inside, but-” the ANBU paused, closing his eyes in regret before continuing, “he found Emiko-sama instead. She was found in the exact position that the prisoner was reported to have been left, and it is revealed that she died from blood loss from multiple open wounds.”
            Gaara closed his eyes and slowly sat back down. He gripped the edge of his desk for support and took in a deep breath. Emiko-san was one of the kindest people he had ever met, and she was an invaluable asset to the village as an elder. He himself had gone to seek her assistance on countless matters after first being instated Kage…she was the first one to openly offer her services to him and braved great uncertainty and mistrust to do so. She was a precious person to Gaara, and now she was dead-found chained to the wall in his own prison, no less-and from bleeding to death? Gaara knew that was a horrible, slow, painful death to die, and it was no way that Emiko-san had deserved to leave the earth. Then again, most shinobi don’t deserve to leave the earth the way they do…not that it excuses the situation at all, of course.
            Perhaps, the most shocking thing of all was that Baki-sensei had allowed this to happen while he was on duty…how could this be so? Gaara trusted Baki implicitly; he was the only man who could be trusted to perform such a task with Gaara’s full confidence, and something such as this had been allowed to take place?
            Gaara closed his eyes and bowed his head in regret, letting his grip on the edge of his desk loosen, and his hands eventually fall to his sides. He knew what he had to do.
            Gaara stood from his chair, finding the strength to perform his duties from somewhere deep within himself. “Bring Baki to me at once,” Gaara said monotonously, staring intently at the shinobi at his feet.
            The ANBU shinobi hesitated for only a few moments before replying, “Yes, Kazekage-sama,” and within the blink of an eye the ANBU had disappeared in a swirl of sand.

            “You wished to see me, Kazekage-sama?” A rough voice rang out of the darkness of the Kazekage’s office. The speaker stood tall and strong, despite the response he knew he would receive.
            “Yes,” Gaara spoke, his gaze directed out of the window of his office. His hands were clasped behind his back, but otherwise his body language was completely expressionless. His eyes were closed as if he was deeply in thought, but no response besides the single word escaped his lips.
            Minutes seemed to roll by as the two stood completely frozen, until the Kazekage finally spoke in his monotonous voice, “Tell me what happened, Baki.”
            The elder shinobi took a moment to consider his response, before essentially restating the exact description of events the earlier ANBU had given his Kage. Their village leader allowed Baki to finish his description before stating, “That is not the description that I wish to hear.”
            Turning around for the first time, Gaara settled his gaze upon his longtime friend and sensei and continued, “You know what the Kazekage-any Kage-sees and hears better than anyone. You have worked for both my father and myself, and you have been a member of the Council of Suna for almost as many years as I have been alive. You know even more intimately than anyone in this village what is expected of both of us. There has been a serious breach of security tonight, and it is my duty to enforce the laws of Sunagakure upon the perpetrator or perpetrators. I need your input on what has happened in detail, and in your own point of view, before I am to make a decision. Moreover, I need to know what happened to properly understand how such a disgusting thing could happen to someone who was such an asset to Suna as Emiko-sama. This is your chance to explain everything to me, Baki-sensei. You will not get another one.”
            Gaara stared directly into the eyes of his old sensei, seriousness leaking from every particle of his being. After seeing the understanding in Baki’s eyes, Gaara closed his eyes for what seemed like the hundredth time that evening and finished, “Tell me.”
            Baki’s body very slightly trembled in front of his Kage’s closed eyes, and he bowed his head before recanting his tale.
            “I honestly knew nothing of what had taken place, Kazekage-sama. I had been patrolling the 4^th sublevel since six o’clock this morning, and nothing unusual had taken place. It was as if it were a normal day on patrol. It was as quiet as it normally is on that particular floor, and I felt no one else enter or leave the area. My abilities were not lacking today, Kazekage-sama, I am sure of it.” It was at this point that Baki raised his previously lowered head to meet his student’s gaze, for now Gaara’s eyes were open once again and were trained on Baki’s form.
            “I do not know what it was, Kazekage-sama, or how this came to happen, but I can assure you it was no mistake on my part. I performed the task given to me to the best of my ability, and although I am sure that Emiko-san’s death was not by my own doing-whether directly or indirectly-I accept full responsibility for her death and for the prisoner’s escape. Please accept my deepest regret, Kazekage-sama.”
            With that, Baki kneeled on the floor and bowed to his Kage, his head touching the floor in a display of his shame. He resisted the urge to sob, but he knew he could not afford to do so at this moment, in front of his Kazekage. It was with this knowledge that he composed what little strength he had within himself, and forced himself to appear strong.
            “Get up, Baki-san.” Gaara stated, his tone still neutral. The lack of emotion in his student’s tone gave him the first cause for fear the jounin had had in a long time of his student, but he dismissed it quickly. He had not performed his duty, and it had resulted in the death of a distinguished council member-his friend. He would never forgive himself, even if his Kazekage did in the future.
            Gaara surveyed his sensei with a neutral expression, but internally a war was waging from within himself. He knew that Baki was not lying and he had truly performed the given task to the best of his ability, but the reality of the situation struck the young Kage hard. A council member had just been murdered from within his own village. He had a legitimate security problem on his hands, a problem with his shinobi seeing him in a position of authority, in addition to the attacker trying to get to Hinata and his additional responsibilities as Kazekage.
            If he sent his sensei away now, it would pose as a risk to his very security as Kazekage-he would lose a very great ally; and yet, it may even have the adverse effect. If he sent away his own sensei for treachery, his other shinobi may begin to see him as more as an authoritarian figure.
            Moreover, the issue at hand was that he had an escaped prisoner-a danger to Sunagakure-on the loose, in addition to the loss of a precious council member and friend, and here he was, about to deliver the punishment to his own sensei. The situation simply could not get any worse.
            As much as Gaara would have loved to not punish his own sensei, he was the Kazekage and he had responsibilities to uphold. The fact of the matter is-no matter how innocent Baki was in Emiko-san’s death, he had still allowed this to all go unnoticed and failed to uphold his duties. It was Baki’s responsibility….
            …just as it was Gaara’s responsibility to punish whoever was responsible. Even if it were a random jounin that Gaara was completely unfamiliar with, it would not have made the situation any easier, for there was now blood on his hands-both of their hands.
            “Rise, Baki,” a calm Kazekage stated, and watched as the jounin in front of him slowly rose to his feet. Baki met his student’s gaze with his head held high, and the knowledge that from now on in that room, silence would be his only ally.
            “You have failed to perform your duties as an honorable shinobi of Sunagakure.” Gaara stated, “and this has resulted in the death of a respected citizen, council member and friend, Emiko Deushi, in addition to the release of a prisoner who is a great threat to the security of our village. As a result of your testimony, I have concluded that although you did not have any immediate involvement with Deushi-sama’s murder or with the actual release of the prisoner, you have failed to perform your duties correctly at such a crucial moment for the security of our village. As of this moment, you will hereby be placed in the same prison in which the atrocity was committed until further evidence is brought to light to further prove your innocence. It is in our village’s best interest that you be kept incarcerated, and I hereby give the order to make this so. Guards-”
            Two ANBU were instantly at Baki’s sides, helping him fully stand and grabbing either of his arms in an attempt to restrain him. “That will not be necessary,” Baki managed, and the ANBU very carefully relaxed their grip on the captive’s arms.
            Although completely shamed and heartbroken, Baki managed to look into his student’s eyes and gave him a very, very tiny smile. “I always knew that you would make a damn good Kazekage, Gaara….and you have proved me right tonight. I’m proud of you.”
            Gaara looked into his sensei’s eyes with an incredible internal strength as he gave a tiny smile in return and said weakly, “I will always be a damn good Kazekage, Baki-sensei…but it seems I am incapable of being a damn good student.”
            Baki merely smiled wider and a few tears found their way to his eyes before the ANBU had forcibly turned him around, walking him out of the room. Baki barely had time to shout back his answer, before the massive wooden doors of the Kazekage’s office swung shut, “You always have been, Gaara-musuko.”
            The young Kazekage then collapsed into his office’s chair, fully spent and truly ready to sob for the second time in his life.

            In case you are all wearing “What the crap?” expressions, Musuko means son. :P So Baki called Gaara his son on that last part.
            Let me explain some of my madness to you before you all start throwing your shoes at me in anger. I wrote this chapter because I really needed to explain the depth of Gaara’s problems to you guys, and not just make this about the two villans who are after Hinata. After all, not only is that cliché, but it is also very ridiculous to make that the only plot point.
            I picked Baki not because I hate him! (Oh Gawd, no; after the Sand siblings, he is my next favorite Sand shinobi!!!) I picked him because although I’ve mentioned it before subtly, Baki really does mean a lot to the sand siblings (a fact that in the original Naruto series is hidden quite well, to my knowledge). In reality, I think that Baki means a great deal to all three siblings, because he is truly the only father the three have ever had. Hence, why I made Baki call Gaara “son”; he did not mean it biologically, before I get any comments asking me why I thought Baki was Gaara’s dad. =.= I don’t think he is; I’m just stating a point.
            In addition, the plot thickens (I bet you thought it couldn’t thicken any more, either)! Haha! Just goes to show you, I’ve got some tricks up my sleeve. :P
            Also, I apologize for not updating sooner! I can say over and over that college truly sucks but I get the feeling that no one cares; you all just want more chapters! :P I’ll try to update soon, okay!
            Thanks for reading and for hanging on with me (for those of you who haven’t dropped your alerts *pointed look*)….you guys are the best! :D
            -Kasie. :D
- 13
- 14
- 15
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

It Was You, Hinata